1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a signal recording apparatus and a signal recording method for recording data onto a recording medium, such as, an optical disc, and particularly to a signal recording apparatus and a signal recording method fro recording sequential data, such as, moving pictures.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a large-capacity recording medium having a recording capacity exceeding several gigabyte units, an optical disc recording medium for reproduction only which handles sequential data of moving pictures, such as, a movie, has been employed. Also, as a large-capacity recording medium having a recording medium capacity exceeding several gigabyte units, an optical disc recording medium for recording and reproduction which is capable of handling computer data is expected to appear. Upon appearance of such large-capacity optical disc recording medium capable of recording and reproduction, it is considered to record sequential data like moving pictures which have been conventionally recorded on video tapes, onto a recording medium assumed to record computer data and allow random access.
Therefore, it is also considered to reproduce a large-capacity optical disc recording medium capable of recording and reproduction by using a reproducing apparatus for reproduction only which reproduces a reproduction-only optical disc recording medium having large-capacity data like a movie recorded thereon, or to reproduce a large-capacity optical disc recording medium for movie reproduction only by using a recording/reproducing apparatus for recording on and reproducing from the large-capacity optical disc recording medium capable of recording and reproduction. Thus, in order to have compatibility with the recording medium assumed to allow random access, the recording medium handling sequential data like moving pictures of a movie also need to record the sequential data in the same format.
Meanwhile, with respect to the recording format of the recording medium, such as, an optical disc, a defective sector alternate processing technique is used in general. This alternate processing is such processing that when a defect is generated in a part of the recording medium to disturb recording of data onto the recording medium or reproduction of data from the recording medium, the recording area is alternated to another part of the recording medium to record data without recording data in the defective part.
Specifically, this defective sector alternate processing is classified into slipping processing using certifying processing which is performed in initializing the recording medium and processing by linear replacement which is performed in use.
The alternate processing of the defective sector by the slipping processing is performed as follows. First, certifying processing is carried out to determined the logical block address (LBA) corresponding to the physical block address. In this certifying processing, whether each sector of the recording medium has any defect or not is checked by carrying out recording/reproduction of data. If it is confirmed that the sector has no defect as a result of the check, the logical block address corresponding to the physical block address of this sector is determined. On the contrary, if the recorded data cannot be read out correctly and it is thus confirmed that the sector has a defect as a result of the check, slipping processing is performed to determine the logical block address from the defect-free sector immediately after the defective sector without determining the logical block address for this defective sector, as shown in FIG. 1A. Then, the physical block address of the defective sector is recorded on a primary defect list (hereinafter referred to as PDL) in a management area of the recording medium. Therefore, in the defective sector alternate processing by slipping processing using the certifying processing, it suffices only to skip the defective sector when accessing sectors before and after the defective sector to record and reproduce data thereof for slipping processing. Thus, performance is not significantly deteriorated.
On the other hand, the alternate processing by linear replacement in use is performed as follows. When a defective sector is found during writing of data onto the recording medium, the data to be recorded in the defective sector is recorded in an alternate sector in a spare area of the recording medium, as shown in FIG. 1B. In this alternate sector, the logical block address of the defective sector in which writing could not carried out is appended. The physical block address of the defective sector and the physical block address of the alternate sector are recorded on a secondary defect list (hereinafter referred to as SDL) in the management area of the recording medium. Therefore, in the alternate processing by linear replacement, seek and rotational delay are made for accessing the alternate sector of the defective sector in accessing sectors before and after the defective sector to record and reproduce data thereof. Thus, performance is significantly deteriorated. For this reason, recording/reproduction of moving pictures on the real-time basis is not suitable for this processing.
In order to have compatibility between the reproduction-only optical disc recording medium which handles sequential data of moving pictures, such as, a movie, as the large-capacity recording medium having a recording medium exceeding several gigabyte units, and the expected optical disc recording medium for recording/reproduction which is capable of handling computer data as the large-capacity recording medium having a recording capacity exceeding several gigabyte units, the data formats must be made common by processing including the above-described alternate processing.
However, with the optical disc for recording and reproduction which is capable of handling computer data as the large-capacity recording medium having a recording capacity exceeding several gigabyte units, certifying processing is time-consuming. For example, with an optical disc having a recording capacity exceeding five gigabytes, the time required for certifying processing exceeds one hour. Therefore, the user of this optical disc recording medium for recording and reproduction must perform certifying processing as pre-processing for recording even for the purpose of recording a movie as if using a video tape, and must take as long as one hour for pre-processing for recording a movie.
Thus, the above-described large-capacity optical disc recording medium assumed to be certified is not practical as a commercial product. Although it is possible to certify the large-capacity optical disc recording medium at the time of shipment, taking one hour leads to significant deterioration in productivity and increase in cost. Therefore, this is not practical, either.
On the other hand, in the case where linear replacement is used for the above-described alternate processing, since seek and rotational delay are made for accessing the alternate sector of the defective sector, performance is significantly deteriorated. Therefore, the processing speed is low in recording and reproduction on the real-time basis. This processing cannot be used for, for example, recording or reproduction of moving pictures, such as, a movie, on the real-time basis.
In view of the foregoing status of the art, it is an object of the present invention to provide a signal recording apparatus and a signal recording method such that in the case where sequential data, such as, moving pictures, are to be recorded on an optical disc recording medium for recording and reproduction which is capable of handling computer data as a large-capacity recording medium having a recording capacity exceeding several gigabyte units, recording is carried out without certifying the recording medium, and such that the sequential data, such as, moving pictures, are recorded and reproduced on the real-time basis.